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I Double-Dog Dare You! by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

One of my proudest achievements in the success of the Lunch Lady graphic novel series is the fact that I have been getting a nation of boys to read a book about a girl. Well, a lady to be precise–it is in the title. Traditional sentiment is that boys simply won’t read a book with a girl on the cover. I cringe at the labeling of a book being a “boy book” or a “girl book”. I’m a firm believer that while either gender may be more inclined to read books containing certain subject matter, books themselves do not have genders. (For starters, it’s biologically impossible.) Girls can like books about trucks and boys can like books about princesses. Girls can like action and boys can like early 20th century novels about an orphaned girl named Anne.

I’ll tell you about a guy who wasn’t afraid to read “girl books” when he was a kid. He was. . . me. When I was a kid, I was a voracious reader of comics. I cut Garfield comic strips out of the daily newspaper and collected it in scrap books. I loved Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts and had the treasuries. If I couldn’t get a ride to the comic book shop, I would walk a mile (each way) to pick up the latest issues of Spiderman, Batman and X-Men. But in the first month of 7th grade, I needed to choose a book for my monthly book report in Mrs. Curtis’s English class. Now I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but Anne of Green Gables landed in my hands. And I read it. And it was. . . good. Sure, she didn’t have adamantium claws and she didn’t have an imaginary tiger, but that book captured my attention. October rolled around and I needed to select a new book. Well, I needed to know what was to become of Anne, so I read Anne of Avonlea. Then November, Anne of the Island. December? Anne of Windy Poplars!

I’m serious when I tell you that I read every single book in the Anne of Green Gables series. Anne got old, she had kids and the books eventually became about them. Did the other boys tease me for reading these books? They didn’t. (They teased me some because I hated sports, but I was able to draw axe-wielding superheroes, so I was good.) But most importantly, I traveled through time to the early 1900’s and befriended a girl whose upbringing wasn’t too dissimilar from my own. I allowed myself to be surprised by how much I enjoyed a book that was so far outside of what I would have normally read.

I want to issue a challenge for the boys across America–read a book with a female protagonist. She can’t just be the sidekick, but the main character. Go ahead, I dare you! In fact, I double-dog dare you! Why? Because you, too, will be surprised by how much you will enjoy a book that is outside of your typical selection. If a period piece isn’t your thing, why not try Jeanne Birdsall’s Penderwicks series or Laurel Snyder’s Bigger than a Breadbox. Prefer science fiction over realistic fiction?Head to the future and get to know Eva Nine in Tony DiTerlizzi’s The Search for WondLa. Want to stick with comics? Check out any of Raina Telgemeier’s books, Ben Hatke’s Zita the Spacegirl or Jenni and Matt Holms’ Babymouse series.

Jarrett J. Krosoczkahas been passionate about storytelling through words and pictures since he was a kid. He began his professional career by illustrating educational readers for a national publisher while still an undergraduate at Rhode Island School of Design. Then, just six months after graduation, Jarrett received his first contract for a trade book that he authored. Knopf Books for Young Readers published Good Night, Monkey Boy on June 12, 2001 and Jarrett hasn’t stopped or slowed down since. He currently has authored and illustrated eighteen published books—ten picture books and eight graphic novels. His Lunch Lady series has twice won a Children’s Choice Book Award, in the Third to Fourth Grade Book of the Year category, and was nominated for a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award. In the summer of 2013, Jarrett will have his chapter book debut with the publication of Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked. His Punk Farm and Lunch Lady series are both currently in development as feature films. While Jarrett awaits seeing his work adapted for the silver screen, he can be heard on The Book Report with JJK, his new radio segment on Sirius XM’s Kids Place Live. Jarrett is happily living out his childhood dream in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he resides with his wife and daughters and their pug, Ralph Macchio.Lunch Lady and the Picture Day Peril hits bookshelves on 9/11/12!

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16 Comments

My son loves your books (and you even visited his school last year, I think it was — in Leeds — yeah, we live in your neck of the woods, Jarrett!). Last night, I pulled out a Pippi Longstocking book and we read for about an hour or so. This is not his first Pippi experience (we’ve read other collections and listened to audio tapes), but I was worried that he might lose interest, now that he is at the age where gender is coming into play. No worries. Here is a girl protagonist that a second grade boy can understand: living on your own, cruising around on a horse with a pet monkey, and just doing what you want to do. But he kept urging me on and on, and I kept going.
Peace,
Kevin

Our 8th grade class is very girl-heavy, so much so that we split the homerooms into two: one that is all girls, and one that is mostly boys (otherwise there would just be a handful of buys among a ton of girls in each class). My homeroom is the mostly boys one. You had better believe I will be issuing this challenge to them tomorrow!

Back in my teaching days (and now during author visits), I stress to kids there is no such thing as boy or girl books. I think boys sell themselves short when they choose not to read a book with a girl protagonist. It is always so refreshing to hear boys talk about books they love that happen to be about a girl. And it shows a lot of confidence.

We’ll have to discuss Anne if our paths ever cross again. Which book is your favorite? Have you ever read LMM’s journals? They’re amazing.

This is wonderful! I think about this issue often. I have boy/girl twins and have been reading to them since birth and now that they are almost ten, we have quite a few books that we’ve read together in our collective history. I often think about what books will appeal to both of them and really, neither has ever rejected a book because it has been too much of a “boy” book or a “girl” book. We have met many characters who have been our hero of the moment and many that have touched us deeply. Each book delivers us many possibilities anyway – characters from each gender that appeal for a variety of reasons. But still, I love this challenge and am going to ask them to consider how it will apply to each of them. Thanks for a great post!

Anne has always had a special place in my heart, and I’m not surprised she managed to find her way into yours, too! I firmly believe that books can cross all sorts of lines, helping us to learn more about people different than us, whether that be gender, time period, or something else. Thanks for sharing!

Milo – who is 11 now (!) – just finished Seraphina by Rachel Hartman – he must have read that thing in two days, it was so exciting. When boys at my library balk at reading books with girls in them, I hold up The Hunger Games and go, “… hmm? yeah? Main character is a girl – and she could kick your butt ALL up and down the block! Now take this copy of Savvy before I have to arm wrestle you into it!”

I am reading Junonia by Kevin Henkes to my 8-year-old son. I don’t know which one of us is enjoying it more. It’s a beautiful book featuring a girl protaganist whose experiences are universal in their quiet details and real emotions. My son loves a good book–whether featuring a spy in the lunch room or a “regular” 10-year-old kid on a vacation with her parents. The gender is not important. Instead, his critiques–and mine, too–come down to the language of the writing.

Thank you for this! It is so easy to talk girls into reading books with boy protagonists. No one seems to think it’s weird at all. But reading is really about learning to take on the life of someone who is not like you – and on the way learning how very much LIKE you they are.

Teaching girls to be strong is part of the battle. Another big part is helping boys see girls as being JUST LIKE THEM. Strong, interesting, and with wonderful stories to tell.

I love this post, and can’t wait to share it with all the boys AND girls I teach.

As a BIG lover of books with female leads and especially ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, I thank you not only for reading it and enjoying it, but for talking about it and issuing this challenge. We need more guys like you. Although your kind are very well represented in the Nerdy Book Club…